Gordon, in his writing on the culinary comedy, said that humor about food serves as an effective social satire. Culinary Humor can be used to mock oneself or others. Likewise, Clogan said that the culinary humor can be used as a tool to criticize, interpret, and entertain relating to the evolving issues. The Culinary Comedy serves as a social satire or literary parody that contains the institutional and social behavior with regard to food. In Classical Arabic culture, also known culinary humor. One of entertainer and comedian who was known for his culinary humor was Asy'ab, therefore he was known as the at-Tamma ' (The Greedy). In this article, will be discussed the form and content of his humor, to see the functions are contained in it.


Abstract. Simulations with the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM) are used to study the sensitivity of the AMOC and the deep-ocean water masses during the Last Glacial Maximum to different sets of forcings. Analysing the individual contributions of the glacial forcings reveals that the ice sheets cause an increase in the overturning strength and a deepening of the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) cell, while the low greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations cause a decrease in overturning strength and a shoaling of the NADW cell. The effect of the orbital configuration is negligible. The effects of the ice sheets and the GHG reduction balance each other in the deep ocean so that no shoaling of the NADW cell is simulated in the full glacial state. Experiments in which different GHG concentrations with linearly decreasing radiative forcing are applied to a setup with glacial ice sheets and orbital configuration show that GHG concentrations below the glacial level are necessary to cause a shoaling of the NADW cell with respect to the pre-industrial state in MPI-ESM. For a pCO2 of 149 ppm, the simulated overturning state and the deep-ocean water masses are in best agreement with the glacial state inferred from proxy data. Sensitivity studies confirm that brine release and shelf convection in the Southern Ocean are key processes for the shoaling of the NADW cell. Shoaling occurs only when Southern Ocean shelf water contributes significantly to the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water.


The precision of cosmological parameters derived from galaxy cluster surveys is limited by uncertainty in relating observable signals to cluster mass. We demonstrate that a small mass-calibration follow-up program can significantly reduce this uncertainty and improve parameter constraints, particularly when the follow-up targets are judiciously chosen. To this end, we apply a simulated annealing algorithm to maximize the dark energy information at fixed observational cost, and find that optimal follow-up strategies can reduce the observational cost required to achieve a specified precision by up to an order of magnitude. Considering clusters selected from optical imaging in the Dark Energy Survey, we find that approximately 200 low-redshift X-ray clusters or massive Sunyaev–Zel'dovich clusters can improve the dark energy figure of merit by 50%, provided that the follow-up mass measurements involve no systematic error. In practice, the actual improvement depends on (1) the uncertainty in the systematic error in follow-up mass measurements, which needs to be controlled at the 5% level to avoid severe degradation of the results and (2) the scatter in the optical richness–mass distribution, which needs to be made as tight as possible to improve the efficacy of follow-up observations.


Fascioliasis disease was first recorded as early as 2000 BC. These are zoonotic trematode infects in animals which causes significant disease among cattle and sheep. Human fascioliasis is food-borne trematode infection, commonly acquired by eating encysted metacercaria on aquatic leaves which eaten as vegetables. Human fascioliasis cause significant illness and morbidity, mainly among low income communities. The infection of fascioliasis (fluke) are most common zoonoses in different cattle and in human beings, which affecting a large number of worldwide population in different regions. These fluke infections affect millions of livestock resulting in considerable economic loss in domestic animals. Controls of zoonosis in different part of world are use synthetic drugs which are very effective in curing fluke infection, but it's also causes a number of side effects. This review attempts the major challenges in control of animals and human fascioliasis with valuable approaches from multidisciplinary integration. Snail is an important intermediate vector host for fascioliasis. The control of snail population by using biological control, plant derived molluscicides, chemotherapy of snail, bait formulation technique, may be effective in zoonoses control. The present reviews summarized the use of different molluscicides/techniques which control the host vector snail population in fascioliasis reservoirs area at certain threshold level of their population; it may be new strategic approaches. The review of literature leads to further evaluation of new researches in trematodes (fluke) control programs.


The research examines the optimization of fleet management of a shipping company through control algorithms, as finding an algorithm that will reduce a marine company's exposure to risk by diversifying its fleet composition is one way to make it dominant. The study focused on three companies that, in 2014, invested US$$1 billion in a fleet of tankers, using three different techniques to optimize their fleet composition: equal number of ships of all types, the established risk minimization model and the proposed Risky Asset Pricing maximization model. Seven years of data was used for the synthesis and 4 years of data was used for the evaluation. The research findings show that classic portfolio management through risk minimization is ineffective, as it appears to reduce performance below what is a random or evenly distributed fleet. Comparing the three methods, the superiority of the Risky Asset Pricing model is clear. This algorithm looks for solutions where the demand for ships is low but has enormous fluctuation potential and seeks to identify ships that are at high risk with great potential for price increases to maximize investor returns. The value of the research lies in the identification of methods to optimize capital distribution and composition of a shipping company fleet, which presents valuable insights for the benefit of scholars and maritime companies. Moreover, and contrary to extant works that focus on Markowitz's theory, this article instead describes how evolutionary algorithms can be used to optimize fleet management.


This paper describes a new approach for modelling the pedestal energy transport in the presence of a small radial magnetic perturbation. The cases of a ballooning instability leading to Type I edge localized modes (ELMs) and a magnetic perturbation generated by external coils are treated. The model for Type I ELMs is based on the linear ideal MHD code MISHKA coupled with the non-linear energy transport code TELM in a realistic tokamak geometry. The main mechanism of the increased transport through the external transport barrier in this model of ELMs is due to the appearance of a radial velocity and a radial magnetic field perturbation due to the MHD mode. Both lead to additional transport perpendicular to the magnetic surface and hence to a relaxation of the pressure profile in the unstable zone. The typical Type I ELM time-cycle was reproduced numerically including the destabilization of the ballooning modes leading to the fast (250 μ s) collapse of the pedestal pressure followed by the edge pressure profile re-building on a diffusive time scale. A possible mechanism for the control of Type I ELMs using a stochastic plasma boundary created by external coils is modelled in this paper using data on ELM suppression by I-coils from the DIII-D experiment. In the stochastic layer the transverse transport is effectively increased by diffusion of the magnetic field lines. The modelling results demonstrate the possibility of decreasing the edge pressure gradient to a value that is just below the ideal ballooning limit, leading to a high confinement regime without Type I ELMs.


It has become apparent to blood transfusion workers throughout the United States that blood users take safe and abundant blood supplies for granted. Full understanding of this field among the general medical public is quite limited, and many facts are not understood at all. Among blood users, very few individuals bother to obtain appropriate information. For them, technical details seem too trivial and the immunological background too complex. Similarly, blood bank technical personnel often lack understanding of the clinical uses of transfusion. The second edition ofPractical Blood Transfusionfurnishes abundant information about both blood banking and blood transfusion in a way that appeals to both groups. This edition, retaining all of the good qualities of the first, adds many facts that have emerged in the last six years. Recent trends in blood banking—immunological and technical as well as political—are thoroughly discussed. This very practical book deals not only


Several Ka-band spatial-amplifier power combiners and their free-space feeds were characterized using a high-resolution extreme-near-field electrooptic measurement technique. The two-dimensional electric-field amplitude and phase maps obtained from several arrays are presented. The usefulness of the technique for diagnostic purposes during the design and prototyping stages of the active arrays is discussed. In particular, the electrooptic maps were shown to be valuable for making improvements in the bias line design in one case, and for isolating faulty unit cells in another case.


Following the discovery of a significant crack in an eyebar (fracture critical element) on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (SFOBB), the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) explored possible remote monitoring solutions. The structural health monitoring system (SHM) would continuously monitor the entire length of selected eyebars for the earliest possible detection and location of potential cracking in order to provide an additional safeguard for close to 277,000 vehicles crossing the bridge daily. Recognizing the need for experts in SHM, Caltrans used a performance based approach for the Emergency Limited Bid (ELB). This required all companies bidding to submit a method and technology approach to address the problem, and if selected, the company then had to prove the technology and approach in the lab, and then pass a blind performance test of the SHM system after installation before receiving final acceptance. In this case, the Acoustic Emission (AE) method was chosen for this remote monitoring system as the most viable solution of available technologies. The SHM system would complement the quarterly inspections performed by Caltrans and assist in monitoring several critical areas that were extremely difficult to inspect. The system went online and began collecting data in early 2012. This unique project represents the largest known SHM application in which 640 AE sensors monitor the entire length of 384 eyebars for an approximate total length of 3.94 miles. Included is a discussion of the field deployment of the AE SHM system and a selection of the results from the automated alarm "events" identified by the system. One of the triggered events identified a potential mechanism, which if gone unnoticed, could have resulted in additional damage to key structural elements and a potential repair cost of over $14 million. Including the overall cost of the AE SHM system (hardware, communication, power, and installation for a 7 year project), the cost of the repair, including labor and materials was less than 25% of the potential repair cost. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/324


Background and aim: Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Hypertension evolved as a major public problem in urban populations of many countries including Nepal, but little is known about its prevalence and risk factors in rural areas. The objective of our study was to assess the prevalence of and risk factors associated with hypertension.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional survey was carried out in November 2017 in a four days health camp where peoples from ward number eight of Suklagandaki municipality of Tanahu district were called for screening of diabetes mellitus. No prior notice was given to the population about screening of hypertension. We screened total of 568 participants. Demographics, anthropometry and two independent blood pressure (BP) readings were taken. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS version 18.0.Results: A total of 568 individuals were interviewed and taken complete BP, weight and height measurements. More than 1/3rd (36.26%) of the respondents were in age group 18- 39 years with mean age 47.49 ± 16.61. Nearly, 60% of the respondents were female. Whilst 17.3% were smokers and 20% reported drinking alcohol. Overall prevalence of hypertension was 41.55% and this was significantly associated with age, gender, education, size of family, smoking habits, intake of alcohol, presence of diabetes mellitus.Conclusion: The prevalence of hypertension was found to be high and it has become a important public health issue even in rural part of Nepal. Community screening program, timely detection, lifestyle modification, treatment and prevention are all important to deal


The main point of this article is to present in a short text all aspects of Multi ‐ Objective Optimization for Facilities Management, so to say from the cradle until the grave. Additionally, the combination of Multi ‐ Objective Optimization with Nominal Methods and Scenario Writing represents an innovation. It is also stated that all stakeholders interested in the issue, instead of one decision maker, have to be involved. First, desk research will discover all the surrounding conditions of the issue under consideration. Therefore, during a period of creative thinking in a nominal exercise all the main influencing events are recorded and finally ranked. From this information, scenarios for the future of the facilities sector are deduced. On basis of all these data, objectives and alternatives are simulated. A Multi ‐ Objective Optimization for the facilities sector is made possible by two methods: an additive method with ratios and the application of Reference Point Theory. Automatically, using these methods, all objectives are normalized to dimensionless numbers between zero and one. Nevertheless, a problem of importance for each objective may remain. Therefore, two methods are proposed. First, weights are granted in a nonlinear way. Secondly, an objective becomes more important by introducing different attributes for the same objective. The latter method seems to be more refined. In this way, a final ranking of the alternatives for the fulfillment of the objectives is obtained.


Abstract — Leukaemia is a blood cancer disease that contributes to the increment of mortality rate in Malaysia each year. There are two main categories for leukaemia, which are acute and chronic leukaemia. The production and development of acute leukaemia cells occurs rapidly and uncontrollable. Therefore, if the identification of acute leukaemia cells could be done fast and effectively, proper treatment and medicine could be delivered. Due to the requirement of prompt and accurate diagnosis of leukaemia, the current study has proposed unsupervised pixel segmentation based on clustering algorithm in order to obtain a fully segmented abnormal white blood cell (blast) in acute leukaemia image. In order to obtain the segmented blast, the current study proposed three clustering algorithms which are k-means, fuzzy c-means and moving k-means algorithms have been applied on the saturation component image. Then, median filter and seeded region growing area extraction algorithms have been applied, to smooth the region of segmented blast and to remove the large unwanted regions from the image, respectively. Comparisons among the three clustering algorithms are made in order to measure the performance of each clustering algorithm on segmenting the blast area. Based on the good sensitivity value that has been obtained, the results indicate that moving k-means clustering algorithm has successfully produced the fully segmented blast region in acute leukaemia image. Hence, indicating that the resultant images could be helpful to haematologists for further analysis of acute leukaemia.


Non-unions pose complications in fracture management that can be treated using electrical stimulation (ES). Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) are essential in fracture healing; however, the effect of different clinical ES waveforms on BMMSCs cellular activities remains unknown. We compared the effects of direct current (DC), capacitive coupling (CC), pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) and degenerate wave (DW) on cellular activities including cytotoxicity, proliferation, cell-kinetics and apoptosis by stimulating human-BMMSCs 3 hours a day, up to 5 days. In addition, migration and invasion were assessed using fluorescence microscopy and by quantifying gene and protein expression. We found that DW had the greatest proliferative and least apoptotic and cytotoxic effects compared to other waveforms. DC, DW and CC stimulations resulted in a higher number of cells in S phase and G2/M phase as shown by cell cycle analysis. CC and DW caused more cells to invade collagen and showed increased MMP-2 and MT1-MMP expression. DC increased cellular migration in a scratch-wound assay and all ES waveforms enhanced expression of migratory genes with DC having the greatest effect. All ES treated cells showed similar progenitor potential as determined by MSC differentiation assay. All above findings were shown to be statistically significant (p<0.05). We conclude that ES can influence BMMSCs activities, especially DW and CC, which show greater invasion and higher cell proliferation compared to other types of ES. Application of DW or CC to the fracture site may help in the recruitment of BMMSCs to the wound that may enhance rate of bone healing at the fracture site.


Lipase is a kind of widely used hydrolase. Bio-imprinting is a new technology , it induces the lipase to exhibit exciting catalytic ability in nonaqueous solvents, such as higher activity and stability, and enhances lipase's industrial use as bio-catalysts. The characteristic of the lipase's structure, the process and the mechanism of the bio-imprinting were introduced. Influencing factors such as the selective principle of different kinds of bio-imprinting templates and the function of lyoprotectant through the process of the bio-imprinting were discussed. Meanwhile, the condition of the bio-imprinting, the reaction catalyzed by bio-imprinted lipase and the results were concluded. Finally, the problem and the prospect of the bio-imprinting technology were mentioned.


During exposure to the cell phone electromagnetic field (EMF), some neurons in the brain at areas of peak specific absorption rate (SAR) absorb more electromagnetic energy than is permitted by existing guidelines. The goal of the present work was to investigate the influence of cell phone-like EMF signal on excitability and memory processes in single neurons. A Transverse Electromagnetic Cell (TEM Cell) was used to expose single neurons of mollusk to the EMF. Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method was used for modeling the TEM Cell and the EMF interactions with living nerve ganglion and neurons. Neuron electrophysiology was investigated using standard microelectrode technique. SAR deposited into the single neuron was calculated to be 8.2 W/kg with a temperature increment of 1.21°C. After acute exposure, the threshold of firing of action potentials (AP) was significantly decreased (p ≈ 0.001). Time of habituation to stimulation with the intracellular current injection was increased (p ≈ 0.003). These results indicate that acute exposure to EMF at high SARs impairs the ability of neurons to store information.


We develop a flexible reward plan to elicit truthful predictive probability distribution over a set of uncertain events from workers.  In our reward plan, the principal can assign rewards for incorrect predictions according to her similarity between events.  In the spherical proper scoring rule, a worker's expected utility is represented as the inner product of her truthful predictive probability and her declared probability. We generalize the inner product by introducing a reward matrix that defines a reward for each prediction-outcome pair. We show that if the reward matrix is symmetric and positive definite, the spherical proper scoring rule guarantees the maximization of a worker's expected utility when she truthfully declares her prediction.


The risk presented by pluvial flooding has emerged as a critical issue in urban water management. Pluvial flooding occurs when precipitation intensity exceeds the capacity of natural and engineered drainage systems, and it is expected to increase in frequency, severity and impact through the 21st century due to the combined effects of climate change and urbanization. Although there have been recent advances in approaches to assess the risk presented pluvial flooding and to enhance the resilience of cities to its impacts, they have not been broadly implemented and there are many opportunities for additional research. We provide case studies of pluvial flooding in six cities in the continental United States, which serve as examples of the current vulnerability of cities that have not developed comprehensive pluvial flood management plans and the challenges in conducting pluvial flood research in light of existing data gaps. We also identify key research challenges that should be prioritized by the interdisciplinary water research community to better support urban resilience practice.


The paper analyzes the behavior of 10 winter wheat genotypes, under 2012-2016 specific conditions, on south-east part of Romania at ARDS Valu lui Traian, Constanta. The cultivars under study had a good behaviour and a different reaction to environmental conditions during 2012-2016. The rainfalls and temperatures from testing period were characterized by large fluctuations, so that, the yield ranged from one year to another. The yields registered by the cultivars under test, generally was affected by the climatic conditions: the highest yields being obtained in 2016 an year with good rainfall and temperatures level, while the lowest ones in the driest year, 2014. Yield stability has been estimated using the relationship between yield of each variety and average of trial, analysis of variance coefficient. In average, on five years, the genotypes Ostrov, Miranda and Faur had the better results. Ostrov genotyp manifested a higher yield stability, Miranda, Faur and Litera had a better stability under contrasting environmental conditions. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the yield performance and stabilities to make the better recommendations about adapted winter wheat cultivars under contrasting environmental conditions, for area farms.


Approximately 50% energy is consumed during the acceleration of a city bus. Fuel consumption during acceleration is significantly affected by driving behavior. In this study, 13 characteristic parameters were selected to describe driving style based on analysis of how driving influences fuel consumption during acceleration. The 100,000 km real-world vehicle running data of six drivers on three city buses in a particular bus line in Tianjin, China were sampled using a vehicle-on-line data logger. Based on the selected characteristic parameters and collected driving data, an evaluation model of the fuel consumption level of a driver was established by adopting the method of decision tree C4.5. For two-level classification, the model has over 85% prediction accuracy. The model also has the advantages of having a few training samples and strong generalization. As an example of the model application, the fuel-saving potential of a driver under optimal operations was analyzed. Thus, the model can be used to train and evaluate drivers employed by bus companies.


The development of personal protection systems with improved ballistic performance and reduced weight has received a great interest in the last decade with the unfortunate ever-increasing threats and conflicts. In this review, the ordinarily polymeric fibers used in body armors manufacturing were first reported, then some nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene with advanced structural and mechanical properties, as well as their potential reinforcement of armor composites were investigated through some recent studies available in the literature. Additionally, natural fibers integrated into multilayered armor systems, and ballistic tests which endorse their future importance were also cited. This short review which sheds light on novel materials used in personal armor systems, a specific and an important topic that was not previously reviewed, aims to provide to the new researchers, engineers and manufactures in this field some guidelines about what are the promising materials that can be used in order to construct the ultimate body armors of the future.


The increasing proliferation of automatic control systems in embedded and distributed applications has lead to increasingly complex systems. These systems manifest a mixture of continuous and discrete dynamics due to the interaction of the computer controlled or logical decision-making subsystems interacting with the real world, and are thus referred to as hybrid systems. The inherent complexity of such hybrid systems makes them difficult to model, analyze and design. As such, industrial application of hybrid system theory has yet to gain widespread acceptance. -- This thesis presents an approach to the modeling, synthesis and implementation of automatic controllers for hybrid systems. This work centers on a flexible hybrid system modeling framework that permits automated synthesis of controllers for hybrid systems, based on safety and performance design specifications. This hybrid modeling framework is the switched continuous model (SCM), based on discrete switching between continuous system models (CSM). Discrete abstractions of the CSM dynamics enable the controller actions to be simple discrete decisions at appropriate points in the state space of the controlled system. The SCM communicates with external discrete event systems (DES) through sets of shared discrete events, thus allowing the techniques of DES supervisory control synthesis to be employed. The resulting controllers are model-based, and safe by design, since they encapsulate the continuous and discrete event models that together model the plant and specification dynamics. Due to the inherently uncountable state space of the hybrid system model, the controller computation is performed online, and is limited to a finite time horizon in order to preserve the finite state properties of the discrete abstraction. -- The details of the modeling framework, controller synthesis, and online implementation are developed, including a computational approach, architecture, and algorithms. A software package that implements these control concepts was developed. Two detailed modeling and control synthesis applications are presented: a simple benchmark hybrid control example and a realistic industrial example.


Gender Segregation in the Labour Market Placed in the Context
of Educational Segregation: Cross-National Comparison. The
position of women in the labour market may be analysed in many
possible ways. In general, we can distinguish between two main
approaches. The first one brings into focus the access to the
labour market and works with indicators such as labour market
participation, employment rates, unemployment rates, inactivity
rates, duration of employment etc. The second approach deals
with the issue of quality of labour market participation, which
includes problems like occupational gender segregation, gender
gap and labour market discrimination. This article focuses on
the latter approach, in particular on the occupational gender
segregation in relation to the gender segregation in education.
The theory of human capital suggests that the increasing level
of qualification, talents and productive skills of women
acquired in the educational system, training and experience at
work, should have a positive impact on quality of women
position in the labour market and enhance gender equality.
Given the increasing educational attainment of women over the
past decades, one would assume that their position in the
labour market, including the gender segregation in occupational
categories, has improved as well. However, the results of
current research prove that despite all the changes and
progress made with respect to the level of education of women,
the level of occupational segregation tends to remain
relatively stable over time. Thus, the increasing level of
education does not seem to have a very strong impact on the
overall level of gender segregation in occupations. One of the
possible explanations may be the fact that women and men tend
to choose different fields of study which predetermine their
participation in particular categories of occupational
structure to a larger extent than their level of education. Men
are still over-represented in different fields of education
than women and this tendency seems to persist even in the
countries where a campaign has been led for the promotion of
democratic and non-discriminatory practices in the system of
education. The main aims of this article are: 1) to conduct a
cross-national comparison of levels of occupational gender
segregation and 2) to examine the relation between the level of
occupational gender segregation and gender segregation in
education (both vertical and horizontal). The analyses include
18 European countries covered by the European Social Survey
(ESS) conducted in 2004. The comparison pays a special
attention to differences and similarities between the EU-15
countries and the new EU member states, i.e. post-socialist
countries.


An adaptive fuzzy neural network (AFNN) control system is proposed to control the position of the mover of a field-oriented control permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM) servo drive system to track periodic reference trajectories in this study. In the proposed AFNN control system, a FNN with accurate approximation capability is employed to approximate the unknown dynamics of the PMLSM, and a robust compensator is proposed to confront the inevitable approximation errors due to finite number of membership functions and disturbances including the friction force. The adaptive learning algorithm that can learn the parameters of the FNN on line is derived using Lyapunov stability theorem. Moreover, to relax the requirement for the value of lumped uncertainty in the robust compensator which comprises a minimum approximation error, optimal parameter vectors, higher-order terms in Taylor series and friction force, an adaptive lumped uncertainty estimation law is investigated. Furthermore, all the control algorithms are implemented in a TMS320C32 DSP-based control computer. The experimental results due to periodic reference trajectories show that the dynamic behaviors of the proposed control systems are robust with regard to uncertainties.


Abstract ζ-Crystallin is a lens protein that has been associated with autosomal dominant congenital cataracts in guinea pigs and thus is a candidate for human congenital cataracts. We have assigned the ζ-crystallin gene (CRYZ) to human chromosome 1 using a Southern panel of 17 human-mouse somatic cell hybrids and regionally localized it to 1p22-p31 by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Five restriction fragment length polymorphisms were identified by analyzing the DNA from 10 unrelated, unaffected individuals. Our results will permit evaluation of its role in human cataractogenesis.


The advancement in technology has produced innovative applications for educational purpose. Numerous higher education applications have aroused in recent years. Therefore, it is essential to strive for a high usability application. This study presents a usability evaluation of a higher education mobile application in Universiti Kuala Lumpur. The study was conducted using usability testing methodology to measure three usability factors which are effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. A number of 64 participants from postgraduate and undergraduate programme were subjectively selected. The result reveals that the application is effective, efficient and meet the users' satisfaction on its usability, with the satisfaction rate of 82.15%. Several issues with regard to the application were highlighted by the respondents during the usability test. Therefore, despite of positive results, several recommendations with regards to improve the usability of the application were proposed in this study.


The recent renaissance of work on conventions, informal institutions, and social norms has reminded us that between the state and individual choice is a network of informal social rules that are the foundation of our cooperative social life. However, even those who appreciate the importance of social norms are reluctant to say that they are about real morality. The first part of the essay examines why this is so. The problem, I suggest, is a widely-embraced view according to which moral judgment is an individual decision about a type of truth that is largely independent of social facts. I show that this popular conception undermines effective social norms and moral conventions. The second part of the essay analyzes the conditions under which effective conventions can be made consistent with diverse individual judgments as to what is morally acceptable — and so conventions can be understood to concern what is genuinely moral. The key, I argue, is the idea of a publicly justified morality as modeled by a hypothetical social contract.


The present article addresses the changes of temporalities within a prolonged displacement process, which has been taking place in the Palestinian city of Jaffa while under Israeli rule. Various temporal perspectives have been imposed by the Israeli authorities on the emptied historical Palestinian neighborhoods, such as terra sine tempore and "ahistorical" narratives. In Al-'Ajami neighborhood, where the Palestinians who evaded expulsion during the 1948 War—the Nakba—were concentered, "freezing" planning policies were imposed until the 1990s, when "privatization" of the refugees' houses and neoliberal urban renewal began. Following Rifkin's (2017) notion of "temporal orientation," this article explores the various temporal experiences of the Palestinians in Al-'Ajami, including waiting, uncertainty, rushing, and a sense of being left out of time. To grasp the multitude of forces acting upon the community, I conducted interviews with six long-standing Palestinian grassroots activists. Analysis of the narratives reveals the various temporalities and rhythms created by the intersectionality and accumulation of oppression and dispossession, including settler–colonial policies and neoliberalism, and illuminates how Jaffa's Palestinians have coped with—and resisted—them throughout the period under discussion.


ABSTRACT To minimise the global burden of diabetes, the awareness of appropriate intervention methods for diabetes education and practice is essential. This project is the first international interprofessional education (IIPE) for the awareness of diabetes, with a focus on patient-centred care wherein three medical and four pharmacy students from Japan and one medical, two pharmacy, two nutrition and one occupational therapy (OT) student from Scotland participated. We described IIPE effects using interdisciplinary education perception scale (IEPS) before and after the programme among Scottish and Japanese students. University of Aberdeen/ Robert Gordon University and Nagoya University developed and established a shared online platform that provided knowledge to students on diabetes in both languages. We developed a case-based scenario that reflected diabetes care in each country using a standardised patient (SP). Lastly, a student-led live webinar was conducted on 14 November 2014 (the World Diabetes Day) to discuss and exchange care methods for SP. Each participating national team presented their care plan and all students discussed the diabetic care plan online. Both Japanese and Scottish teams were able to accurately assess the patient's condition and empathise with the SP. In conclusion, all participants learned that interprofessional collaboration was clearly required for diabetes management focused on patient-centred care. All participants appreciated the differences in the approach of the two countries involved because of the cultural- and health related differences. This programme was significant in raising awareness regarding the need for international interprofessional intervention on diabetes towards developing a model for live webinar IIPE.


We report the results of neutron diffraction, ac and dc magnetization, heat-capacity, complex dielectric permittivity and pyrocurrent measurements on an oxide, Li3NiRuO5, hitherto not paid much attention in the literature, except for a previous report on its promising electrochemical performance. We emphasize on the following findings. (i) Re-entrant spin-glass behaviour is observed; that is, this oxide undergoes ferrimagnetic ordering below 80 K, entering the spin-glass regime around 12 K. (ii) There is no prominent feature in the complex dielectric permittivity (in particular, at the magnetic transitions) in the absence of an external magnetic field, indicative of the absence of ferroelectricity. However, there is distinct evidence for magneto-dielectric (MDE) coupling. The sign of MDE coupling also changes as the sample is cooled from the ferrimagnetic state to the spin-glass regime. (iii) There are pyroelectric anomalies in the vicinity of 30–70 K, presumably arising from thermally stimulated depolarization current.


The Twelfth Five-Year Plan that came out of 2011's National People's Congress meeting reveals that the broadly defined communication sector will be central to China's attempts at transforming its economic developmental model. Recognizing that this five-year plan is an especially important programmatic framework for China's future development, this article aims to spell out why and how communication will be entangled in China's push for economic restructuring, as well as the potential constraints over its actual implementation. This article argues that, while the ICT, media, and culture sectors are given high expectations in the document to help expand socially and spatially domestic consumption orientation on the one hand, and to create sunrise, high-tech, and pillar industries on the other hand, it is crucial to remember that entrenched bureaucratic and transnational capitalist interests in and beyond the broadly defined communication sector may obstruct the realization of the plan.


In February 2020, the pandemic disease designated COVID-19, caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has shown to be able to cause severe illness in some patients. Recent studies have hypothesized that the SARS-CoV-2 exploits the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor to gain entry inside the cells and so reach the central nervous system1. Amid this context, we have about 50 million people with epilepsy taking antiseizure drugs (ASDs) and or other medications (eg.: steroids, Cannabidiol, etc.) that are at risk to be infected by SARS-CoV-2 virus. So, we did an extensive review in the literature searching for recent studies that had explored the effects of the role of SARS-CoV-2 infection and epilepsy. We did not find evidence of poor outcomes between epilepsy and COVID-19. Regarding ASDs, we have found that enzyme inducers and inhibitors can have significant interactions with drugs that have been used to treat COVID-19 such as antiretrovirals, antibiotics, and antimalarial drugs. In contrast, others have fewer or no interactions with them as such as benzodiazepines, Lamotrigine, Levetiracetam, Topiramate, Perampanel, and so on. Besides that, the management of seizures in epileptic patients and status epilepticus should not be different from the usual protocol. However, the acknowledgment of these potential drug interactions could help in the right choice of ASDs, and also be aware of potential risk drug combinations and the importance in some cases of close monitoring of serum levels and adverse events.


Objectives  To determine the neurological manifestations in AIDS patients with a recent diagnosis. Materials and methods A descriptive, retrospective study was carried out on 82 patients, admitted to the University Hospital in Curitiba for a period of 30 months, with positive serology for HIV, using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method for diagnosis and confirmation. Results Of the 82 patients studied, 28 (34.1%) presented neurological manifestations; 16 were male (57.14%) and 12 female (42.85%). The age ranged from 22 to 79 years, with a median age of 35 years. Neurological manifestations were: headache (19.29%), motor deficit (19.29%), cranial nerve disorders (14.03%), epileptic seizures (10.52%), dementia (8.77%), coma (5.26%), ataxia (5.26%), mental confusion (5.26%), and tremor (3.5%). Cerebrovascular and neuroinfectious diseases (including neurotoxoplasmosis, bacterial and cryptococcal meningitis, and cerebral tuberculosis) were the most frequent diagnosis with 10 cases each (33.33%). Of the 28 patients, 10 (35.7%) died and 18 (64.28%) were discharged. Conclusion Based on the results found, it appears that one-third of AIDS patients with up to one year of diagnosis (34.14%) have some type of neurological manifestation, highlighting the importance of performing specific anamnesis and neurological examination in these patients.


BACKGROUND
In Flanders there is as yet very little consensus concerning the extent and content of somatic investigations available to and conducted on patients newly admitted to psychiatric hospitals.

AIM
To obtain an overview of the numbers and specialisms of medical-somatic staff at Flemish general psychiatric hospitals, the equipment available and the somatic routine examinations regularly requested.

METHOD
We compiled a questionnaire about current hospital policy concerning the diagnosis of physical illnesses in newly admitted patients and the availability of diagnostic facilities. We submitted the questionnaires to 20 Flemish psychiatrist hospitals.

RESULTS
The commonest type of medical equipment available at these psychiatric hospitals consisted of ECG, X-ray and ultrasonic devices. The routine examinations that were requested most frequently were blood and urine tests, ECG'S, clinical examinations, and X-rays of the thorax. The numbers and specialisms of somatic doctors at these hospitals vary from one hospital to the next. Sometimes a hospital does not have any somatic doctors at all.

CONCLUSION
The general psychiatric hospitals in Flanders do not have a uniform policy concerning somatic examinations on newly admitted patients. The equipment and the numbers and specialisms of the medical-somatic staff vary from one hospital to another. It seems reasonable that extra investigations such as blood tests, ECG's and thorax X-rays should be conducted when case histories and clinical examinations indicate that such testing may be useful.


A wide range of predictive models have been developed to better understand the fate and transport of mercury throughout the environment. This work collates some of the most accepted forms that are openly available for research purposes. Many of these have been developed and updated through progressive adaptation. While predictive models often analyse the intrinsic chemical and physical properties of mercury species in individual environmental compartments and matrices, such as those documented for atmosphere, water, land and biota, others have been developed for multimedia application. The study of environmental mercury is highly complex and requires different approaches and technologies to further enhance understanding of processes and pathways. Models therefore play an essential role in comprehending mercury behaviour and cycling, uptake, bioaccumulation and biomagnification. Effective modelling enhances human and ecosystem risk assessments by anticipating transformations and exposures to the various forms of mercury that can influence such parameters as bioavailability and toxicity. However, since there are always margins of uncertainty inherently associated with estimated data, model outputs should be interpreted as representative rather than empirical. A compilation of models will be presented.


MOTIVATION
Co-evolution methods have been used as contact predictors to identify pairs of residues that share spatial proximity. Such contact predictors have been compared in terms of the precision of their predictions, but there is no study that compares their usefulness to model generation.

RESULTS
We compared eight different co-evolution methods for a set of ∼3500 proteins and found that metaPSICOV stage 2 produces, on average, the most precise predictions. Precision of all the methods is dependent on SCOP class, with most methods predicting contacts in all α and membrane proteins poorly. The contact predictions were then used to assist in de novo model generation. We found that it was not the method with the highest average precision, but rather metaPSICOV stage 1 predictions that consistently led to the best models being produced. Our modelling results show a correlation between the proportion of predicted long range contacts that are satisfied on a model and its quality. We used this proportion to effectively classify models as correct/incorrect; discarding decoys classified as incorrect led to an enrichment in the proportion of good decoys in our final ensemble by a factor of seven. For 17 out of the 18 cases where correct answers were generated, the best models were not discarded by this approach. We were also able to identify eight cases where no correct decoy had been generated.

AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
Data is available for download from: http://opig.stats.ox.ac.uk/resources CONTACT: email@example.com information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


Native grasslands provide a multitude of benefits to society including forage production, wildlife habitat, and nutrient and CO2 sequestration. There has been increasing interest in using native perennial grassland plantings to produce cellulose-based biofuels. However, there is little information on how biomass production might vary among different native species in a comparable field setting in Western Iowa. Perennial warm-season grasses such as big bluestem, Indian grass, switchgrass, little bluestem or side-oats grama often dominate prairies. In Western Iowa, all five of these species dominate in at least some grassland plantings. In an ongoing study, we are studying how different warm-season grasses vary in their biomass production, weed suppression, and rare prairie species recruitment. Prairie species recruitment will be reported in more detail in future reports. Here, focus is on the differences in biomass production and weed suppression among grass species.


Prickly pear fruit (Opuntia ficus indica L. Miller) belongs to the Cactaceae family. This species is very sensitive to low storage temperatures (< 5°C) which cause damages. The fruits can be peeled, suitably packaged and successfully commercialized as a ready-to-eat product. The main limit to the extension of the shelf life is the production of off-flavors due to different factors, the growth of microorganisms and the action of endogenous enzymes. Lipoxygenase (LOX) and Pectinesterase (PE) are involved in fruit degradation. In particular, LOX pathway is directly responsible for lipid oxidation, and the subsequent production of off-flavours, while PE causes the softening of fruit during maturation. They act on the texture and shelf-life of post-harvest, packaged fruits, as a function of the the grown of microorganisms and packaging technologies used. The aim of this work is to compare the effect of different packaging technologies on the shelf life extension of ready-to-eat prickly pear fruits with regards for the enzymes activities. Keywords—Enzymes, packaging, prickly pear, shelf life.


Spring Issue of this quarterly magazine of which I am a contributing editor.

Commissioned and helped edit several articles including 'Apocalypse Tendency Crisis' by Benjamin Noys, 'Crisis at the ICA: Ekow Eshun's Experiment in Deinstitutionalisation', and 'An End Without End: Catastrophe Cinema in the Age of Crisis' by Evan Calder Williams

FULL CONTENTS

Editorial
By Josephine Berry Slater

Crisis at the ICA: Ekow Eshun's Experiment in Deinstitutionalisation
Amidst a general acceptance of the cash crisis afflicting the ICA as an accident of the recession, and a rush into 'hairshirt' institutional self-critique as a means to deflect real scrutiny, JJ Charlesworth uncovers a catalogue of avoidable mistakes and the free-market, lifestyle thinking behind them

An End Without End: Catastrophe Cinema in the Age of Crisis
Dusting off the tedium and ash deposited by Hollywood's recent spate of catastrophe movies, Evan Calder Williams takes aim at their world-affirming pessimism and calls for some real apocalypse

Apocalypse, Tendency, Crisis
Crises tend to generate apocalyptic dreams and nightmares. Through a reappraisal of 20th century anti-capitalist thought, Benjamin Noys urges us to critically re-think how such an apocalyptic tone operates within radical analyses of the current crisis

Post-Crunch Futures II: A Mute Fiction Special
Where 'fixing' the future is a game for social engineers, writers Matthew Fuller and Anthony Iles prefer to open out the present, egg on its energies, taunt immanence ...

Help and Advice
By Matthew Fuller

Speculating on Housing
By Anthony Iles

Steganographia
By Martin Howse

How Not to be an Atheist
Ben Pritchett dives into the alphabet soup of Brian Rotman's Becoming Beside Ourselves and Joanna Zylinska's Bioethics in the Age of New Media and picks apart the jumbled relations between ethics, new media and subjectivity

Hung, Drawn and 'Quartered'?
Two recently published books – Anna Minton's Ground Control and This is Not a Gateway's Critical Cities – take stock of the accumulated effects of New Labour's 'urban renaissance'. In his double review, Owen Hatherley sees the tired politics of micro-resistance go head-to-head with some much needed materialist geography

Against Representation: A Revolution in Front of You
By taking everything as possible material for improvisation (not just sounds, but ideas, affects, power relations, hidden structures contained within the room...) it is possible to develop a practice of 'extreme site-specificity'. Noise artist Mattin probes the enigma of radical performativity

Hopenhagen against Hope
Amidst the general eco-panic and its commodification, Ilya Lipkin travelled to the Copenhagen Summit to witness capitalism's first last chance at preserving a climate conducive to its growth

Editorial abstract:

'Grey Goo' is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nano- technology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter on Earth while building more of themselves. This spectacularly dystopian meme not only provides a Sci Fi analogue for the carnage reaped by capital accumulation, but also conceives of its residue – a world not definitively destroyed, but degenerated into a mass of undifferentiated, yet still active goo. The goo's combination of inhuman self-replication and destruction is an instance of how the pop imaginary conceives of The End. Not as an interruption ushering in the transvaluation of all values, but as an infinite extension of more of the same old shit. Writers in this issue of Mute also recognise the likelihood of this gooey scenario in which crisis doesn't automatically release us from our current conditions but may well simply deepen them. Soberly examining the general deployment of endings, from Hollywood disaster movies to anti-capitalist theory to the manipulation of climate-change panic, this issue of Mute puts an end to the endgames.


The world is increasingly experiencing water scarcity due to the impact of climate change, a phenomenon that is affecting agricultural production, particularly in tropical regions. An effective response system is required to adapt and reduce the impact on agricultural production. There have been calls on the role agriculture can play to reduce the impact without compromising food security. Hence, the present article discusses some of the major difficulties in water-smart sprinkler irrigation to adapt to the impact of climate change on agricultural production. In order to meet investment cost with water-smart sprinkler irrigation, the fixed water dispersion device for an impact sprinkler needs to be optimized to improve its performance under low pressure conditions. This is necessary to produce the desirable droplets sizes for minimising evaporation losses and distortion by wind, whilst maintaining the large distance of throw. Further research should be backed by strong institutional support towards a wide-scale adoption of water-smart sprinkler irrigation technologies. This could be of significant benefit to better water management in the artificially drained catchments and lessen the impact of climate change on agricultural production.


Author(s): Poo, Cindy | Abstract: Events in our external world are transformed into internal percepts and experiences. How can we begin to understand this transformation? It starts with the stimulation of peripheral sensory organs and ultimately requires the holistic synthesis of ensemble neural activity in the cortex. The cortex is composed of circuits connecting diverse types of neurons across various functional brain regions. In order to fully understand the cortical representation of an external stimulus, we must dissect out basic components of the circuit and characterize their stimulus response properties. We study neural circuits in primary olfactory (piriform) cortex of rodents using electrophysiological recordings in brain slices and l italicgin vivo. We examine the underlying synaptic mechanisms of odor representations, and how it can be modulated. First, we demonstrate an early developmental critical period for plasticity and structural changes in principal neurons of the olfactory cortex in response to sensory afferent activity. Next, we use in vivo recordings to demonstrate that synaptic inhibition is widely recruited by odor stimuli, whereas synaptic excitation is more selective in principal neurons. We show that the recruitment of both local interneurons as well as intracortical excitatory connections serve to shape odor-evoked synaptic activity. Synchronous beta (15-30 Hz) oscillations between the olfactory cortex and bulb are thought to be important for odor discrimination. We find that odor-evoked synaptic currents in principle cells of olfactory cortex are couple to beta frequency oscillations in the local field potential. A time window between oscillatory synaptic excitation and inhibition restricts the spike timing of odor-evoked spikes. Beta frequency oscillations have been shown to require a centrifugal feedback loop from olfactory cortex back to the bulb. We use an optogenetic approach to reveal that cortical feedback projections provide inhibition onto mitral cells in the olfactory bulb via activation of granule cells. This work establishes a framework to understand basic components of odor representations in olfactory cortex, and a role for cortico-bulbar feedback loop. In combination with work done in the visual, auditory, somatosensory and gustatory cortices, this study contributes to a more complete understanding of sensory information processing by cortical circuits


There are very few studies that have investigated directly the effect of an oxide film on tin whisker growth, since the cracked oxide theory was proposed by Tu in 1994. The current work has investigated the effect of using an electrochemically formed oxide and both a molybdate conversion coating and a tungstate conversion coating on tin whisker growth from Sn-Cu electrodeposits on Cu, and compared it with that from a native air-formed oxide. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has been used to investigate the effect of coating parameters on the thickness and composition of the oxide film. The XPS studies show that the oxide film formed using either of the conversion coating baths was significantly thicker than that produced from the potassium bicarbonate-potassium carbonate bath. Initial observations suggest that both the tungstate-based conversion coatings and the molybdate-based conversion coatings significantly reduced whisker growth by over 80 %, compared with a native air-formed oxide, and provide improved whisker mitigation compared with the electrochemically formed oxides.

The current work has also investigated the potential of using a dual-layer system, comprised of both an electrochemically formed oxide bottom layer and an acrylic conformal coating top layer, for the mitigation of tin whisker growth. The electrochemically formed oxide used in the dual-layer system was produced at 2 V vs. Ag/AgCl while passing a charge of 60 mC cm-2 and the thickness of the conformal coating was aimed to be between ~5 μm to ~6 μm. This thickness was chosen to enable the study of whisker growth on a shorter time scale and to study the effect the electrochemically formed oxide had when used in conjunction. Initial observations showed that the dual-layer system provided improved whisker mitigation compared with both the electrochemically formed oxides and acrylic conformal coatings when used singularly.

As part of the self-healing work, nanocapsules filled with the reactive agent were needed to be synthesised and the compatibility of them with different solvents needed to be studied. Capsules filled with the reactive agent were successfully synthesised, however, it was found that the capsules agglomerated and the size of the capsules, in some instances, were too large to be incorporated into a thin conformal coating. Regardless, the capsules were still analysed to check the compatibility with different solvents, to identify a suitable conformal coating mixture that would not dissolve the polymer shell of the capsules. It was observed that the capsules were stable in three out of the five solvents that were analysed, them being isopropanol (IPA), butanone and methylcyclohexane.


This paper reports a pilot study concerning the use of Internet based resource materials amongst
a group of undergraduate students. The aim of the study was to examine the extent to which
students were using the Internet to support client based technology project work. In addition,
the students' perceived valuation of these resources in the context of practical project work
was examined.
A cohort of one hundred final year students of Industrial Design and Technology was involved
in a client based design project. Data collected from seventy-one students via a questionnaire
identified that all students had used the Internet facilities of the University.
Subsequent to the questionnaire, interviews were held with six selected students who showed a
strongly positive or negative response to using the Internet to support their project work. The
paper discusses key factors influencing student engagement with this resource during the process
of designing. The results indicated that most students accepted the resource was useful. Perceived
barriers to its more widespread use were slow downloading of information, access to computer
facilities and the cost in time and money to learn and use the software and hardware involved.
The paper also highlights the need for considered design of both questionnaire and interview
schedule when studying student cohorts.


Time series classification (TSC), the problem of predicting class labels of time series, has been around for decades within the community of data mining and machine learning, and found many important applications such as biomedical engineering and clinical prediction. However, it still remains challenging and falls short of classification accuracy and efficiency. Traditional approaches typically involve extracting discriminative features from the original time series using dynamic time warping (DTW) or shapelet transformation, based on which an off-the-shelf classifier can be applied. These methods are ad-hoc and separate the feature extraction part with the classification part, which limits their accuracy performance. Plus, most existing methods fail to take into account the fact that time series often have features at different time scales. To address these problems, we propose a novel end-to-end neural network model, Multi-Scale Convolutional Neural Networks (MCNN), which incorporates feature extraction and classification in a single framework. Leveraging a novel multi-branch layer and learnable convolutional layers, MCNN automatically extracts features at different scales and frequencies, leading to superior feature representation. MCNN is also computationally efficient, as it naturally leverages GPU computing. We conduct comprehensive empirical evaluation with various existing methods on a large number of benchmark datasets, and show that MCNN advances the state-of-the-art by achieving superior accuracy performance than other leading methods.


Water resistance is a desirable property across a range of cosmetic product categories, including decorative cosmetics, leave-on hair products, sun protection and skin care (e.g. hand barrier creams). This work has focused on two formulation variables, the type of emulsifier system and the choice of film-forming polymer, both known to change the rheological profiles of semisolid systems. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of these two factors on the rheological and texture profiles, as well as the water resistance characteristics, of semisolid O/W emulsions.

A simple O/W emulsion formulation, containing glycerol, mineral oil, water, preservative and emulsifier system was used in this study. The basic emulsifier system consisted of two non-ionic emulsifiers (sorbitan stearate and polysorbate 60) in combination with a co-emulsifier cetearyl alcohol. The alternative emulsifier system had an anionic emulsifier sodium cetearyl sulphate added to the above emulsifier mixture.

A range of seven film-forming polymers were used in the study, representing acrylates, silicones, graft copolymers and block copolymers. Two groups of 8 emulsion samples, containing either basic or alternative emulsifier system and including a non-polymer control, were tested. Rheological measurements were carried out in both continuous flow and oscillatory mode and were complemented with texture analysis, performed using a spreadability test. In the absence of universally accepted in vitro water resistance test, a gravimetric method for measuring water resistance was developed and applied to all test samples.

The results have shown a variety of rheological profiles, which were both emulsifier- and polymerdependent. The addition of sodium cetearyl sulphate have resulted in softer (lower complex modulus) and more spreadable formulations (lower firmness), which coincided with lower water resistance scores. The block copolymer polyurethane-62 (and) trideceth-6 has produced specific rheological profiles, characterised by high internal resistance and high elasticity. The graft copolymer vinyl pyrrolidone/ eicosene was the best performer in terms of water resistance, showing the lowest weight change of 11.1% after the first 20-min immersion in water and 12.9% after the second immersion. The non-ionic emulsifier mixture based on sorbitan stearate and polysorbate 60 has provided superior performance in comparison to its combination with the ionic emulsifier sodium cetearyl sulphate.


Vitamin C is considered to be a very efficient water-soluble antioxidant, for which several new cardiovascular properties were recently described. The aim of this study was to determine in vivo the effects of a severe depletion of vitamin C on cardiac and vascular variables and reperfusion arrhythmias. For this purpose, we used a mutant strain of Wistar rats, osteogenic disorder Shionogi (ODS). After 15 d of consuming a vitamin C–deficient diet, ODS rats had a 90% decrease in plasma and tissue levels of ascorbate compared with ODS vitamin C–supplemented rats and normal Wistar rats. However, plasma antioxidant capacity, proteins, -tocopherol, urate, catecholamines, lipids, and nitrate were not influenced by the vitamin C deficiency in ODS rats. Moreover, there was no difference between ODS vitamin C–deficient and –supplemented rats in heart rate and arterial pressure. After 5 min of an in vivo regional myocardial ischemia, various severe arrhythmias were observed, but their intensities were not modified by vitamin C in vitamin C–deficient ODS rats. The vascular reactivity, measured in vitro on thoracic arteries, was not altered by ascorbate deficiency in ODS rats. These unexpected results suggest that unidentified compensatory mechanisms play a role in maintaining normal cardiac function and vascular reactivity in vitamin C–deficient rats. J. Nutr. 134: 729–735, 2004.


Various cytokine combinations have been tested for efficacy in the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (MRCC). Because several immunologic synergisms between granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating-factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-2 (IL-2) have been demonstrated, this phase II trial was conducted on the efficacy and toxicity of subcutaneous, sequentially administered, interferon-gamma (IFN&ggr;), GM-CSF, and IL-2. Fifty-five consecutive patients with MRCC were treated with 100 &mgr;g recombinant IFN&ggr;1b administered thrice weekly during weeks 1 and 4, followed by 400 &mgr;g GM-CSF on 5 consecutive days during weeks 2 and 5. In weeks 3 and 6, patients received 4.5 MU recombinant IL-2 from days 1 to 4. The treatment was repeated every 8 weeks. Five (10%) of patients experienced an objective response (complete response [CR]: 2%, partial response [PR]: 8%). Fourteen (26%) patients had stable disease with a median duration of 19 months (6–47+). The median overall survival was 12 months (range: 0.3–44 months). No toxicity greater than World Health Organization grade II was observed, with fever (43%) and erythema (43%) being the most frequent side effects. Compared with other phase II trials with IFN&ggr; and IL-2 alone, the addition of GM-CSF failed to improve response or survival in patients with MRCC.


The article discusses how knowledge has been accumulated by water engineers for optimizing the size of water reservoirs in drinking water supply systems. The most important knowledge for proper sizing has always been to know the water demand. How much water is consumed per day in the net-work? Second most important fact is the production capacity. It is important to be able to produce water from a water resource at sufficient amount. Then comes the demand for fast distribution from the reservoir to the net-work. The earliest reservoirs were built to contain at least a day's water demand, or even more. A technical break-through came when electricity powered pumps could be used instead of steam-powered pumps. This opened for smaller reservoirs. Another technical change came with the reinforced concrete, that facilitated cost-effective larger reservoirs. Experiences from successful and less successful plants and reservoirs have always been very important for improving the rules of designing.


Power is known to promote effective goal pursuit, especially when it requires one to overcome distractions or bias. We proposed that this effect involves the ability to engage and implement cognitive control. In Study 1, we demonstrated that power enhances behavioral performance on a response conflict task and that it does so by enhancing controlled processing rather than by reducing automatic processing. In Study 2, we used an event-related potential index of anterior cingulate activity to test whether power effects on control were due to enhanced conflict sensitivity or action implementation. Power did not significantly affect neural sensitivity to conflict; rather, high power was associated with a stronger link between conflict processing and intended action, relative to low power. These findings suggest a new perspective on how social factors can affect controlled processing and offer new evidence regarding the transition between conflict detection and the implementation of action control.


In order to improve the machining efficiency of high strength steel 2.25Cr1Mo0.25V and tool life, intermittent turning performance of 2.25Cr1Mo0.25V with common carbide tools and advanced coated carbide tools was experimentally studied, cutting parameters and tool types were optimized. The results showed that the machining efficiency and tool life of advanced coated carbide tools were remarkably higher than that of common carbide tool; the tool life of quadrate coated tool was longer than that of circular tool. The cutting tool failure mechanisms were also discussed.


No permission to reproduce or utilise the contents of this book by any means is necessary, other than in the case of images, diagrams or other material from other copyright holders. In such cases permission of the copyright holders is required ; European Co-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research.


In the first part of this paper, the author is presenting two acts of Serbian positive legislation of which one allows the employer to insure their employees as a form of additional social care and the other is obligating them to insure the employees from injuries and diseases that can arise out of and in the course of their employment by the employer. In the second part, Law on Safety and Health at Work, as the law that obligates them on insurance, is analised, and the good solutions (the definition of the obligation) and shortcomings (absence of minimum sum insured) of the Law are presented. In addition, it is appointed that the obligation that is established, does not have the sanction for non-fulfillment of the obligation. The third section of this paper outlines Worker's compensation insurance and Employer's liability insurance, as the types of insurance through which the employer can fulfill their obligation. Furthermore, the conditions of both types of insurance, of some Serbian and foreign insurers were analyzed and it was concluded that the conditions of Serbian insurers are not providing the necessary coverage. In the penultimate section, tax treatment of these two types of insurance in Serbia is shown and bearing in mind that one of them is excluded from tax on insurance premium and the other one is not, the equalization of their tax treatment is suggested. In the last part of the paper it is concluded that in Serbia, the structural changes in both legislation and conditions of insurance in this domain are necessary. It is suggested that the legislation needs to prescribe the minimum sum insured and the sanction for non-fulfillment of the obligation and on the other side the National bank of Serbia should point out to the insurers on the necessary changes in their insurance conditions.


High-throughput technologies, such as proteomic screening and DNA micro-arrays, produce vast amounts of data requiring comprehensive analytical methods to decipher the biologically relevant results. One approach would be to manually search the biomedical literature; however, this would be an arduous task. We developed an automated literature-mining tool, termed MedGene, which comprehensively summarizes and estimates the relative strengths of all human gene-disease relationships in Medline. Using MedGene, we analyzed a novel micro-array expression dataset comparing breast cancer and normal breast tissue in the context of existing knowledge. We found no correlation between the strength of the literature association and the magnitude of the difference in expression level when considering changes as high as 5-fold; however, a significant correlation was observed (r = 0.41; p = 0.05) among genes showing an expression difference of 10-fold or more. Interestingly, this only held true for estrogen receptor (ER) positive tumors, not ER negative. MedGene identified a set of relatively understudied, yet highly expressed genes in ER negative tumors worthy of further examination.


This study seeks to determine the workings of a system of acreage allocation given price and yield uncertainty so as to identify the role that uncertainty in market output has in acreage allocation decisions. This study adapts expected utility as developed by Chavas and Holt. The major findings of this study are as follows: 1) the effect of wealth in acreage decisions depends not only on the risk preference of the farm but also on the risk in and the structure of the output market, 2) violation of symmetry can come from (i) differing expectations regarding yield and price, (ii) risk differences in the price and yield for each crop, and/or (iii) different risk preferences among farm households, 3) the non-negativity of own compensated acreage effects would be satisfied if Proposition 1 or 2 holds, 4) production decisions would be affected by price and yield risk even when all input and output prices change proportionally, in which case homogeneity would not be satisfied without Proposition 1, and 5) symmetry of expected price and yield requires additional restrictions on the ratio of expected yields and prices and responsiveness of acreage to cross yield and price.


Over 900 students in the rural northwest at the fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth grade levels were surveyed for alcohol and drug use. The survey instrument measured self-reported usage of seventeen substances. The descriptive statistical results are reported by gender as well as grade-level usage rates. Discussion includes targeting drug prevention programs for specific grade and gender levels based upon the results.


The effects of the micro-ramps on supersonic turbulent flow over a forward-facing step (FFS) was experimentally investigated in a supersonic low-noise wind tunnel at Mach number 3 using nano-tracer planar laser scattering (NPLS) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) techniques. High spatiotemporal resolution images and velocity fields of supersonic flow over the testing model were captured. The fine structures and their spatial evolutionary characteristics without and with the micro-ramps were revealed and compared. The large-scale structures generated by the micro-ramps can survive the downstream FFS flowfield. The micro-ramps control on the flow separation and the separation shock unsteadiness was investigated by PIV results. With the micro-ramps, the reduction in the range of the reversal flow zone in streamwise direction is 50% and the turbulence intensity is also reduced. Moreover, the reduction in the average separated region and in separation shock unsteadiness are 47% and 26%, respectively. The results indicate that the micro-ramps are effective in reducing the flow separation and the separation shock unsteadiness.


The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) established the Nursing Informatics History Project to recognize the pioneers of nursing informatics. Fundamental to the pioneers was dissemination of knowledge. The purpose of this review was to identify pioneers who have embraced social media as of 2016. It is suggested that the pioneers participate in the advancement of nursing informatics via social media.


Abstract Recycling beryllium used in a fusion reactor might be a good way to overcome problems related to the disposal of neutron irradiated beryllium. The critical issues for the recycling of used first wall beryllium are the presence of tritium and (transuranic) impurities. High temperature annealing seems to be the most promising technique for detritiation. Purification of the detritiated beryllium can be achieved by chlorination of the irradiated beryllium and the subsequent reduction of beryllium chloride to highly pure metallic beryllium. After that, the beryllium can be re-fabricated into first wall tiles via powder metallurgy which is already a mature industrial practice. This paper outlines the path to define the experimental needs for beryllium recycling and tackles problems related to the detritiation and the purification via the chlorine route.


States, which have the primary legal role in regulating the prescribing and dispensing of prescription medications, have created Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP) to try to reduce inappropriate prescribing, dispensing, and related harm. Research assessing whether these interventions are effective has produced inconclusive and contradictory results. Here we examine whether different data sources may have contributed to the varying results. Specifically, we: 1) identify the decisions inherent in creating such a dataset; 2) discuss the public data sources used by researchers in previous work; 3) develop and apply a detailed research protocol to create a novel PDMP law dataset; and 4) to illustrate potential consequences of data choice, apply various data sources to analyze the relationship between PDMP laws and prescribing and dispensing of opioids among disabled Medicare beneficiaries. We find that our dates differ from those in existing datasets, sometimes by many years. The regression analyses generated a twofold difference in point estimates, as well as different signed estimates, depending on the data used. We conclude that the lack of transparency about data assembly in existing datasets, differences among dates by source, and the regression results raise concerns for PDMP researchers and policymakers.


Abstract We report results of Global Positioning System (GPS) and tide gauge data from the Andaman region that pertain to the period before the 26 December 2004 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake ( M w  9.2). In the preceding 40 years, seismicity in the frontal arc region was generally very low, implying locking of the main thrust zone. The campaign mode GPS data support strain accumulation in the region, corresponding to a slip deficit rate of about 3  cm/year. However, the tide‐gauge data of the preceding three years from the earthquake indicate land subsidence at a rate of about 3.3  cm/year, whereas uplift was expected in the period prior to the earthquake, as the region experienced coseismic subsidence during the earthquake.


In a recent report, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has argued that certain key developments, including globalisation, population ageing and the diffusion of information technologies, are causing a shift in the demand for labour in modern advanced economies. Demand is thought to be moving away from relatively low-skilled agricultural and production occupations in favour of highly-skilled professional, technical, administrative and managerial occupations. Moreover, rising turnover in the labour market is tending to increase the rate at which existing skills are rendered obsolete. Hence workers in OECD countries are coming under mounting pressure to adapt and enhance their skills on an ongoing basis; that is, today's workers must participate in lifelong learning. This paper investigates the quantitative evidence for the proposition using, as a case study, the distribution of employment across occupations in Australia. Three changes in this distribution are considered: the change that actually occurred between 1986-87 and 1994-95, a forecast of the change that is likely to occur between 1994-95 and 2002-03, and an estimate of the change that will result from trade liberalisation proposals advanced by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. In each case the change in the occupational distribution is used to infer the effect on the demand for labour differentiated by qualification level, qualification field and age group. Unlike much of the structural analysis that accompanies discussions of lifelong learning, the approach here is comprehensive. The analysis is not restricted to occupations thought on a priori grounds to have a particular affinity to lifelong learning, but considers changes in employment across all occupations. Hence the role of particular occupations, such as those associated with information technology, for example, are able to be placed in a an economy-wide perspective. The analysis reveals that the factors driving the demand for labour are numerous and diverse, and suggests that generalisations and "stylised facts" are likely to be of only limited usefulness in determining training priorities.


At the Instituto Materno Infantil (IMI) in Bogotá (Colombia), 5,686 births (5,597 live births and 89 stillbirths) were analyzed during two periods: from October, 1997, to April, 1998, and from July to November, 2000 (12 months). Congenital anomalies were detected in 4.4% of live newborn babies and in 7.8% of stillbirths. Major anomalies corresponded to 69% and mild anomalies to 31% (3% and 1.4% of all live births, respectively). The newborn babies with major anomalies, in comparison to the normal controls, had higher mortality at hospital discharge (p = 0.0001), lower average birth weight (p = 0.003), and family history of congenital anomalies (p = 0.0001). The only significant association for mild anomalies was with family history of congenital anomalies (p = 0.0001). The frequency of congenital anomalies was similar to that in other studies, although certain kinds of anomalies showed noticeable frequency differences. This may be a consequence of differences in record keeping or in detection methods.


The tropical peatlands of Indonesia are widely recognized as a globally significant carbon stock and an important provider of crucial ecosystem services. However, in recent years they have been increasingly degraded. The Indonesian government has attempted to involve communities in peatland restoration efforts. These attempts were made in recognition of (1) the important role livelihood activities play in land degradation processes and (2) the 'gatekeeping' and stewardship role local communities play in ensuring the durability and longer-term effectiveness of restoration activities. Engaging communities has proven challenging for many reasons, but particularly because of the historical distrust local communities have towards land management interventions. In this article, we borrow the concept of a social license to operate (SLO) from the business management literature to understand why and how community involvement impacts peatland restoration in Indonesia. We introduce the concept and conceptual models of a social license to restore (SLR). As a result of engaging with our perspective, readers will be able to identify how issues of government distrust, low levels of community participation, and poverty—and the counterfactual—may impact the longer-term success of restoration initiatives and how a social license to restore may expedite progress in restoration. Secondly, discussing and linking the multi-faceted issues of peatland restoration will highlight its relevance within the land, biodiversity and human well-being nexus.


While many important aspects of wild and farmed insects have been discussed by scholars, such as nutritional value, conservation and farming techniques, no study has addressed how insect farming contributes to rural livelihoods. Furthermore, the roles that interactions between insect farmers, their peers and institutions play in insect farming as a livelihood strategy are even less well understood. This paper presents a preliminary assessment of cricket farming as a livelihood strategy in Thailand. Fortynine cricket farmers participated in in-depth interviews designed to gain insight into how cricket farming contributes to rural livelihoods. This exploratory study investigates the following research questions: What are the characteristics of Thai cricket farmers and their farms? How do crickets contribute to the lives of rural farmers in Thailand? What role has social and human capital played in cricket farming communities? And what can be learned from the experience of cricket farming in Thailand? Findings suggest that cricket farming has improved the lives of many rural farmers in Thailand not only through the provision of an alternative income source, but through strengthening human and social capital. As such, further empirical data and case study analyses are needed in order to advance our understanding of this particular livelihood strategy.


Background: Transgender people have a gender identity different from the one allocated to them at birth. In many countries, transsexualism and transgenderism are considered mental illnesses under the diagnosis of gender dysphoria. This pathologization impacts on human rights. Main content: The United Nations (UN) has denounced violations against trans-people, including attacks, forced medical treatments, lack of legal gender recognition, and discrimination in the areas of education, employment, access to healthcare, and justice. The UN has linked these violations directly with discriminatory diagnostic classifications that pathologize gender diversity. Trans-people have been pathologized by psycho-medical classification and laws all around the world, with a different impact depending on countries. This paper argues that pathologization infringes infringes upon a wide range of human rights such as; civil, economic, social cultural and also the access to medical care. Conclusions: The current situation for trans-people with respect to legal healthcare matters, depends on the country. Human rights are universal, not a question for cultural interpretation. They are the minimum that every human being must have assured only by the fact of being human. Countries must protect these rights by regulating trans-pathologization with special attention dedicated to intersex people and their specific needs.


This paper aims at analysing, both theoretically and empirically, the various patterns of coordination among firms and their impact on the patterns of localization of activities. For this purpose, an analytical framework is built in the first part of the paper, based on concepts elaborated within the proximity school in economic geography which emphasizes the multiplicity of spaces of reference of economic actors. Then, relations among firms are characterized using the competence-based approach in industrial organization. Based on these two analytical tools, the paper reviews the main arguments developed in the literature to explain the spatial dimension of inter-firm relations.The second part of the paper presents the results of an empirical study of firms involved in research and development activities, and discusses these results with respect to the theoretical arguments discussed in the first part. Through the study of research and development activities, which are generally viewed as both global and sensitive to local conditions as all innovation processes, the paper sheds new light on the role of space in inter-firm relations. This empirical work is especially valuable in that it allows to go further than the usual local case-studies that form the bulk of the literature. It allows to identify a number of strong regularities that, in turn, prove helpful in terms of local economic diagnosis.


Students' low proficiency speaking in their mother language has attracted the attention of
previous researchers for decades. This study was conducted in one Primary School in Desa
Bintang, Sidikalang, Dairi District, North Sumatera Province. Fifteen students of primary
school, year 4 -6, were involved as the participants. They were native speakers of Pakpak
language just like their parents. The students were asked to describe a picture on celebrating
Indonesian Independence Day in their mother language. As the generic structure of
descriptive text includes identification and description, the study focuses on the students'
proficiency in these two parts. The research question is: How do the primary students
describe the picture in their mother language? The results show that: a) In the identification
part, no student (0%) shows speaking proficiency in Pakpaknese; Five 5 students (33.4%)
spoke the identification part by mixing Indonesian and Pakpaknese. For example, 'Kalak
en sedang kibaen kerejo (they were working); and the majority, ten students (66.7%), speak
in Indonesian only. b) In description part, the students produce 66 verbs/verb phrases which
only 17 (25.7%) verbs/verbs phrases were produced in Pakpaknese and 49 verbs/verbs
phrases (74.3%) were Indonesian verbs/verb phrases. In terms of consistency, only 1
(6.6%) student was consistent in using Pakpak verb vocabularies, and the majority 14
students (93.4%) was inconsistent, i.e some verbs/verb phrases were produced in
Pakpaknese and some in Indonesian. Only 1 student could say 'kipajekken' (menaikkan)
for 'bendera' which implies the potential loss of the vocabulary. c) There were 130
nouns/noun phrases produced by the students which only 26 (20%) nouns/noun phrases
were in Pakpaknese and the majority 104 nouns/noun phrases (80%) were in Indonesian.
In terms of consistency, none (0%) of the students could produce nouns/noun phrases
consistently. d) In the production of adjectives, there were 29 adjectives were used and only
one adjectives were in Pakpaknese which was 'bagak' means 'good'. It implies that
adjectives are the most difficult vocabulary for the students to think of. Only 12 students
(80%) produced adjectives in their description and 3 students did not use any adjectives at
all. From the 80% students, only 1 student (6.7%) produced it in Pakpaknese. The results
imply that the students do not show good oral proficiency when speaking in their mother
language. It is suggested for curriculum designers at schools and book writers to make use
of the data to ensure the exposure of the vocabularies to the students to help reverse the
language shift and maintain Pakpak Language.


In this work, we present the study of light and matter interaction through the building and operation of a cold atoms experiment. The motivation is to study light scattering in the dense regime, where this phenomenon becomes a collective effect, since the distance between atoms is such that inter-atomics effects must be considerated (in terms of density, one could say that the sample belongs to the dense regime when its density is of the order of 1/λ3, where λ is the wavelenght) and also because scientific comunity hasn't fully understand it yet. To achieve such a regime, we use the luminous force that happens when an atom interacts with a laser beam. First we use the radiation pressure force to create a magneto-optical trap, and then use the dipolar force to create the final objective of this dissertation: the optical dipole trap. In the end, we have achieved an ODT sample with 0, 17 density in 1/λ3 unitys. Such density does not characterize the sample as a dense one, but the problems of such results are already being solved, making a dense sample perfectly accessible, which we can say it's a very good result for our first optica dipole trap ever. Now, the experiment is at the door of a far over interesting physics, which is the study of collective scattering of light. Key-words: ODT. MOT. dipole.


IMPORTANCE
Nearly every US acute care hospital reports publicly on adherence to recommended processes of care for patients hospitalized with pneumonia. However, it remains uncertain how much performance of these process measures has improved over time or whether performance is associated with superior patient outcomes.

OBJECTIVES
To describe trends in processes of care, mortality, and readmission for elderly patients hospitalized for pneumonia and to assess the independent associations between processes and outcomes of care.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Retrospective cohort study conducted from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2010, at 4740 US acute care hospitals. The cohort included 1 818 979 cases of pneumonia in elderly (≥65 years), Medicare fee-for-service patients who were eligible for at least 1 of 7 pneumonia inpatient processes of care tracked by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Annual performance rates for 7 pneumonia processes of care and an all-or-none composite of these measures; and 30-day, all-cause mortality and hospital readmission, adjusted for patient and hospital characteristics.

RESULTS
Adjusted annual performance rates for all 7 CMS processes of care (expressed in percentage points per year) increased significantly from 2006 to 2010, ranging from 1.02 for antibiotic initiation within 6 hours to 5.30 for influenza vaccination (P < .001). All 7 measures were performed in more than 92% of eligible cases in 2010. The all-or-none composite demonstrated the largest adjusted relative increase over time (6.87 percentage points per year; P < .001) and was achieved in 87.4% of cases in 2010. Adjusted annual mortality decreased by 0.09 percentage points per year (P < .001), driven primarily by decreasing mortality in the subgroup not treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) (-0.18 percentage points per year; P < .001). Adjusted annual readmission rates decreased significantly by 0.25 percentage points per year (P < .001). All 7 processes of care were independently associated with reduced 30-day mortality, and 5 were associated with reduced 30-day readmission.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Performance of processes of care for elderly patients hospitalized for pneumonia improved substantially from 2006 to 2010. Adjusted 30-day mortality declined slightly over time primarily owing to improved survival among non-ICU patients, and all individual processes of care were independently associated with reduced mortality.


Purpose: To compare half fl uence-full dose and half dosefull fl uence photodynamic therapy (PDT) regarding visual acuity and anatomic changes in chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR). Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 60 patients with chronic CSCR patients who underwent half fl uencefull dose (group 1, 30 patients) or half dosefull fl uence (group 2, 30 patients). The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central macular thickness (CMT), subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT), serous retinal detachment (SRD) and retina pigment epithelial detachment (PED) were compared between the groups at baseline, on months 1, 3, 6 and 12 during follow-up. Results: The mean follow-up duration was 12 months in both groups. The mean number of repeated PDTs following fi rst PDT was 0.48 ± 0.20 (range, 0-2) in the group 1 and 1.09 ± 0.80 (range, 0-3) in the group 2 during 12-months follow-up (p = 0.031). In Group 1, BCVA was increased from 0.69 ± 0.28 logMAR (logarithm of the Minimum Angle of Resolution) at baseline to 0.20 ± 0.18 logMAR on month 12 (p <0.001). The CMT was decreased from 380.26 ± 104.77 μm at baseline to 267.86 ± 73.95 on month 12 (p <0.001). The SFCT was decreased from 274.60 ± 38.53 μm at baseline to 236.10 ± 37.09 μm on month 12 (p = 0.002) while SRD showed a statistically signifi cant decrease during follow-up when compared to the baseline (p <0.001). In group 2, the BCVA was increased from 0.66 ± 0.33 logMAR at baseline to 0.17 ± 0.16 logMAR on month 12 (p <0.001). CMT was decreased from 355.93 ± 101.74 μm at baseline to 258.03 ± 66.28 μm on month 12 (p <0.001). SFCT was decreased from 274.40 ± 16.06 μm at baseline to 254.50 ± 28.12 μm on month 12 (p<0.001) while SRD showed a statistically signifi cant decrease during follow-up compared to the baseline (p <0.001). On month 12, there was no statistically difference between the groups regarding SRD (p=0.752). In both groups, no statistically signifi cant change was observed in PED during the follow-up when compared to the baseline (p> 0.05). In the study, number of PDTs were increased by decreasing doses administered in PDT (r = -0.339, p = 0.008). In both groups, no PDT-related complication was observed. Conclusion: Both half fl uence-full dose and half dose-full fl uence PDT were effective in the treatment of chronic CSCR. No signifi cant difference was observed in visual or anatomical outcomes between groups. Although no systemic complications developed depending on the PDT dose, the number of relapses increased by reducing amount of doses. amount decreased. Based on these results, we observed that the number of PDT relapses can be related to the dose amount.


Edible electronics is an emerging research field targeting electronic devices that can be safely ingested and directly digested or metabolized by the human body. As such, it paves the way to a whole new family of applications, ranging from ingestible medical devices and biosensors to smart labelling for food quality monitoring and anti-counterfeiting. Being a newborn research field, many challenges need to be addressed to realize fully edible electronic components. In particular, an extended library of edible electronic materials is required, with suitable electronic properties depending on the target device and compatible with large-area printing processes, to allow scalable and cost-effective manufacturing. In this work, we propose a platform for future low-voltage edible transistors and circuits that comprises an edible chitosan gating medium and inkjet-printed inert gold electrodes, compatible with low thermal budget edible substrates, such as ethylcellulose. We report the compatibility of the platform, characterized by critical channel features as low as 10 μm, with different inkjet-printed carbon-based semiconductors, including biocompatible polymers present in the picogram range per device. A complementary organic inverter is also demonstrated with the same platform as a proof-of-principle logic gate. The presented results offer a promising approach to future low-voltage edible active circuitry, as well as a testbed for non-toxic printable semiconductors.